Hometown New York City Brooklyn

For people living in small to mid-size hometowns, it is easy to write about their towns. However, for someone like me who was born and raised in New York City, it is rather difficult. Therefore I will look upon the borough of Brooklyn as my small town away from the teeming streets of Manhattan and the other boroughs. I was born in a very quiet corner of Brooklyn called Bay Ridge so I will begin my tour here. As I continue I will paste the links about the neighborhoods I have written about below.

Bay Ridge is a neighborhood located in the southwest corner of the borough of Brooklyn. Bound on the north by 65th Street, on the east by Interstate 278, and on the west by the Belt Parkway-Shore Road. Bay Ridge was originally known as Yellow Hook because of the yellowish soil seen by the original Dutch settlers. The name was changed in 1853 after yellow fever struck the area.

The new name was decided upon because the neighborhood offered great views of New York Bay from the ridge that had become Ridge Boulevard. The view attracted wealthy people who built expensive homes along Shore Road which overlooked the water. Once the 4th Avenue Subway (now the R line) was extended in 1915, and many Manhattan workers looking for quieter surroundings began flowing in, transforming Bay Ridge into a middle-class neighborhood.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries many Norwegian and Danish sailors emigrated to Brooklyn, especially to Bay Ridge and 8th Avenue got the nickname of Lapskaus Boulevard. Traditions began such as the annual Norwegian Constitution Day Parade also known as the Syttende Mai Parade, featuring hundreds of people in folk dress parading along Fifth Avenue. The parade ended in Leif Ericson Park where “Miss Norway” was crowned near the statue of Leif Ericson. The statue was donated by Crown Prince Olav, Prince of Norway on behalf of the nation of Norway in 1939.

Construction of the Verrazano Bridge, which connects Bay Ridge to Staten Island was completed in 1964. The area of the neighborhood around Ovington Avenue (aka 70th Street) was once known as “Ovington Village” but was eventually incorporated into the rest of Bay Ridge. Also destroyed was Fort Lafayette, part of New York City’s defense system along with Fort Hamilton and Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, replaced by the base of the bridge’s east tower. Verrazano Bridge can be seen from most places in Bay Ridge

The place I called home is 267 Ovington Avenue

This area was hit by the 2007 Brooklyn tornado, specifically 68th and 69th Streets between 3rd and 4th Avenues. Eleven houses had to be evacuated after they suffered significant damage. Stoops and cars in these two blocks had trees topple on them. The 4th Avenue Presbyterian Church had a very large stained glass window that was blown out of the 4th Avenue Presbyterian Church. As the tornado lifted it peeled the roof off of a nearby Nissan dealership and deforested 40% of Leif Ericson Park.

Bay Ridge is largely a middle-class neighborhood. It has a sizable Irish, Italian, Greek, and Scandinavian population, but like other areas in South/Southwest Brooklyn, late in the 20th century saw an influx of Polish and Russian immigrants and in lesser numbers Chinese. In recent decades a variety of Middle Eastern immigrants have moved to Bay Ridge. Most of the population is Christian with a small minority of Muslim and Jewish. Especially along 3rd and 5th Avenues which are its main commercial strips Bay Ridge has many international restaurants and bars. Many refer to the community as “Brooklyn’s Gold Coast”. The neighborhood also has a high elderly population. In 2006, it was reported that 20% of the population was 60 and over.

Fort Hamilton an active military base near the Verrazano Bridge houses one of the neighborhood’s few cultural attractions, The Harbor Defense Museum.

Another popular Bay Ridge attraction is the 69th Street Pier at Bay Ridge Avenue (aka 69th Street) and Shore Road. It features a sculpture that gives out a beam of light as a memorial to those who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks of September 11. The pier is popular with local fishermen who fish there daily. Until the middle of the 20th century, a ferry to Staten Island operated from this pier for a nickel fare.

Nearby is Owl’s Head Park. This park was once the home of Senator Murphy of the City of Brooklyn and it was also the Bliss Estate. This 27-acre walking park has a state-of-the-art skate park, a children’s playground, and basketball courts. The park also offers one of the best views of the Narrows from West Hill.

Why Owl’s Head Park? The geographical explanation is that the land was once shaped like the head of an owl. Others insist that owls once lived here and a local journalist remembers that there was once an elegant hotel by the same name on the corner of Third Avenue and 69th Street. Finally, the last theory derives from the fact that the estate which once nestled into the hillside had a pair of stone owls framing its entrance gate. Canarsie Indians who were part of the Mohegan Nation and spoke Algonquin, once lived in and around the present-day Owl’s Head Park. They fished in the Hudson River and New York Harbor. The first Europeans to settle this land were the Dutch.

The park is located on a terminal moraine that extends from New Jersey to the end of Long Island. A moraine marks the place where a glacier In this case the 10,000-year-old Wisconsin glacier) deposited boulders, rocks, soil, and debris. A native of Brooklyn, Henry C. Murphy built his estate along the glacial ridge. The son of Irish immigrants, Murphy's political career included terms as Mayor of Brooklyn. As New York State Senator Murphy drafted the bill which authorized the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and in 1866 he signed the bill at his mansion. He also founded the newspaper The Brooklyn Eagle and became one of its first editors. Senator Street, which begins at the park, was named in his honor.

The Murphy Mansion was purchased in 1866 by Eliphalet W. Bliss (1836-1903). This wealthy manufacturer refurbished the mansion and built a horse stable and an observatory tower from which one could see the bay, Staten Island, and the Orange Mountains of New Jersey. Bliss willed his property to the city of New York with the stipulation that it would be used solely for parkland. In 1928 the land was designated as a park but by 1940 Owl’s Head Park had fallen into neglect and the mansion, stables, and tower were demolished.

Now Owl’s Head Park is one of the premier parks in Brooklyn. It was my park, where my parents took me to play in the 1960s. Families picnic here in the summer and children sled from its hill in the winter. One can watch ships enter and leave New York Harbor. There is an extensive collection of trees including pines, locusts, oaks, maples, corks, beeches, and one S-shaped tulip poplar that defies gravity. In 1994 restoration was made and the park got new playground equipment, landscaping, and paved paths.

Other places of interest in Bay Ridge:

St. John’s Episcopal Church is located at Fort Hamilton Parkway and 99th Street. The present church dates back to 1890 but there has been an Episcopal parish here since 1834 when soldiers garrisoned at Fort Hamilton built the first St. John’s. The nearby Roman Catholic parish, St. Patrick’s originated the same year.

At one time Shore Road was lined with mansions and private homes. At 99th Street, a grand mansion was once owned by actress Lillian Russell who shared a passion for diamonds with Jim Brady. The mansion is now the Fontbonne Hall a Catholic school for girls.

An 1847 Greek Revival wood house on 95th Street near Shore Road was built when most of Bay Ridge was just forests and meadows. The house originally faced the shoreline but was moved to its present location when 95th Street was cut through in 1913. It is officially known as the James F. Farell House which has been landmarked. James F. Farrell lived in the mansion from 1890 to 1912. James’ son Jack, a Tammany Hall politician was a promoter of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. The house has been recently renovated.

A house at 83rd Street and Narrows Avenue is known by locals as the “Gingerbread House”. It was built by J. Sarsfield Kennedy in 1917.

Bennett Court named for a prominent Bay Ridge family is one of NYC’s few remaining red-brick pavement streets. It is one of two cul-de-sacs on 72nd Street near 4th Avenue.

John Carty Park was built beneath the connecting ramp between the Verrazano Bridge and the Belt Parkway in 1964 and later named for a local 32-year civil servant who died in 1970. Not much of a park but the basketball court figured in a scene in the 1978 film “Saturday Night Fever”.

At Shore Road and 79th Street, there is the Old Glory Lookout which offers views of nearby Staten Island and Manhattan across Upper New York Bay.

The smallest cemetery in Brooklyn the Revolutionary Cemetery stands at the corner of Narrows Avenue and MacKay Place. It was founded in 1725 by Dutch immigrant William Harmans Barkaloo. Here are buried several Revolutionary War veterans and the last actual burial here took place in 1848.

The “ridge” in Bay Ridge is a glacial ridge left during the last Ice Age. There is a steep hill between Ridge Boulevard and Colonial Road which necessitates a rare Brooklyn “step street”.

On top of one such step street at 76th Street is a 1900 Gothic Revival mansion overlooking the bay. On top of the steps at 74th Street, residents maintain a garden.

My high school Fort Hamilton High School

Bay Ridge has two main shopping streets, 3rd and 5th Avenues. You can walk the length of both 3rd and 5th Avenues and look into the shops and you’ll wind up on 86th Street which is lined with stores on both sides and many different eateries.

Both avenues also include grocery shops, meat markets, and fruit and vegetable stands. There are restaurants and bars.

It is a neighborhood to be seen and in the hot summertime, there is nothing like a walk along the shorefront starting from the 69th Street pier. All along the water, watching the boats and the ships, feeling the wonderful refreshing breeze coming off of the water, stopping to rest on the benches along the way, and getting refreshments from vending carts. Walking all the way into the next neighborhood Bensonhurst.